Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be;
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell, -- Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, "My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here." - Edna St Vincent Millay

Monday, 23 March 2009

The sun always shines on the ophthalmologist

The skies are never overcast when I have an appointment with the ophthalmologist. Almost sounds like a song lyric, doesn't it? Nope, every time I go to see the eye doctor, the sun is blazing in a cloudless blue sky. Since my appointment is always in March, this generally means that there are freezing winds screaming up Sparks Street directly from the Ottawa River which is bobbing with chunks and pans of ice this time of year. With my pupils dilated to bad-art-puppy-dog size, I have to remove my glasses (my contact lenses being out of the question), and slap on sunglasses, then grope my way up the street, squinting at street signs and traffic signals. I spend the afternoon in front of the computer wearing reading glasses over my regular glasses. Luckily, no one is home. When 2:30 arrives, I once again slap sunglasses over my leaden eyeballs and grimace in what I hope is a friendly fashion at the vague shapes that may be people greeting me.

My horoscope was a very gloomy one this morning, which is doubly disturbing since it comes from the normally witty and cheery Georgia Nichols. Today, she told me: I'm not going to kid you. This could be a challenging Monday. ("It was Monday. It was Monday all day.") Powerful forces from within you might make you feel uncomfortable about something. You might not even know what's going on. (I don't even know what's going on.) It's time to let go of something. (But what?)

All perfectly true, of course. It being the first day back at school for both daughters after March Break, I was in a fit of gloom over taking younger daughter back to the mine-infested obstacle course of class projects, presentations, field trips and rituals from here until June. I was however, strangely comforted by a rare dream involving David Tennant. Nothing erotic, you understand. We were walking companionably down a crowded hallway in what I presume was a hotel, and he was clad in an adult-sized replica of younger daughter's pajamas. He kept reaching back to take my hand to guide me through the throngs of people and the combination of this gesture and the pajamas was rather endearing. He had just come back from some public event in Berlin where he'd been doused with water and become rather cross. I've mentioned before that my dreams rarely make a lick of sense. I think I prefer it that way.

The Launchcast Death Watch continues. Here's a bit of what I listened to over the weekend, with my ratings out of a hundred:Why?50 - Tracy Chapman, Tracy Chapman (1988)What I Like About You100 - The Romantics, The Romantics (1980) The link I've provided here is to a well-edited Doctor Who fan-vid done by some sweet young thing who thinks this is a song by The Ramones. This is the risk you take when ripping off music from Limewire...Gyasi Went Home68 - Bedouin Soundclash, Sounding a Mosaic (2004) (Can/Con) These guys are from Kingston which is on Lake Ontario, and is about an hour by train from Ottawa. The video I've linked to has them gabbing about the song for about a minute and a half, but the song itself is worth a listen.My Maria100 - Brooks and Dunn, Borderline (1996) I loved the 1973 original by B.W. Stevenson, but this is a wonderful cover, and I must confess, despite not being a huge fan of country music, I think Ronnie Dunn is one long cool drink of water...All I Want Is You (Live)70 - U2Once in Love With Amy (from Where's Charley?)100 - Ray Bolger Alas, there is no YouTube link to Ray Bolger's rendition of his signature tune. Lisa Rullsenberg suggested this weekend that I check out Last.fm, so I transferred 252 of my favourite artists to my profile there, and, on a whim, typed in Ray Bolger. And up came this song, which bodes well, although I think it will take me some time to figure the site out.A Dream, A Dream, A Dream47 - Bert JanschSymphony #6, Movement III81 - BeethovenLonesome Blues 50 - Louis Armstrong, The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (1926)Goin' Out West56 - Tom Waits, Bone Machine (1992)I Drove All Night70 - Cyndi Lauper, Twelve Deadly Cyns. . . . (1995)Always liked this video, also this cover of the Roy Orbison song.Quien (Who)50 - Tish Hinoiosa, Cada Niño/Every Child (1996)For a Job47 - Peggy Seeger, An Odd Collection (1996)This Traveling Around50 - Lyle Lovett, It's Not Big, It's Large (2007)Laughter50 - Jack Rouse, Home (2000)The End of the Tour65 - They Might Be Giants, John Henry (1994)This is just a taste of the song by the quirky band which takes its name from one of my favourite movies.

When I was a Boy96 - Dar Williams, Out There (2001)One of my very favourite Dar Williams songs:I won't forget when Peter Pan came to my house, took my handI said I was a boy; I'm glad he didn't check.I learned to fly, I learned to fight.I lived a whole life in one night.We saved each other's lives out on the pirates' deck.

And I remember that nightWhen I'm leaving a late night with some friendsAnd I hear somebody tell me it's not safe,someone should help me.I need to find a nice man to walk me home.

When I was a boy, I scared the pants off of my mom,Climbed what I could climb uponAnd I don't know how I survived,I guess I knew the tricks that all boys knew.

And you can walk me home, but I was a boy, too.

I was a kid that you would like, just a small boy on her bikeRiding topless, yeah, I never cared who saw.My neighbor come outside to say, "Get your shirt,"I said "No way, it's the last time I'm not breaking any law."

And now I'm in this clothing store, and the signs say less is more.More that's tight means more to see, more for them, not more for me.That can't help me climb a tree in ten seconds flat.

When I was a boy, See that picture? That was meGrass-stained shirt and dusty knees.And I know things have gotta change,They got pills to sell, they've got implants to put in,they've got implants to remove

But I am not forgetting...that I was a boy too.

And like the woods where I would creep, it's a secret I can keepExcept when I'm tired, 'cept when I'm being caught off guard.And I've had a lonesome awful day, the conversation finds its wayTo catching fire-flies out in the backyard.

And so I tell the man I'm with about the other life I livedAnd I say, "Now you're top gun, I have lost and you have won."And he says, "Oh no, no, can't you see

When I was a girl, my mom and I we always talkedAnd I picked flowers everywhere that I walked.And I could always cry, now even when I'm alone I seldom do.And I have lost some kindnessBut I was a girl too.And you were just like me, and I was just like you."

7 comments:

Cripes. March to June with NO break??? We get a stupid short term this time of year, and mine are off for Easter next week for a fortnight, but then we go through to July with one week off. Hope school for dd2 is not too traumatic.

I am loving your launchcast posts, Persephone, but having to ration myself as I really haven't time to listen to all this great stuff...Thank you for Dar Williams. That is one woman I like (and share a surname with). I love cross gendery type of things so that song made me smile.

Rather pleased I recognised the Beethoven even though I couldn't have identified it in a thousand years.

Loved Maria and the Tom Waits (who's someone I've never got into properly)

And that Romantics song was great, particularly with the dr who video

Gyasi went home I probably need to listen again, but it made me think of Bob Marley (which is a good thing. Standard part of going out ritual when I was a student was dancing to Bob Marley drinking vodka)

Not so keen on the End of the Tour, but have always had a soft spot for Cyndi Lauper...

Oh and an aside on Louis Armstrong. After the war he pitched up to entertain the American troops who took over the German estate run by Spouse's grandfather. LA and he became quite pally and Mil still has a Christmas card from him (we thought she was making it up/had the wrong person to begin with!!)

Well, we do get two months off: July and August. My favourite They Might Be Giants song is, of course, "Birdhouse in Your Soul" which shows up frequently on my Launchcast station (or will until they kill it, the murderers).

My husband has a rather sad Louis Armstrong story. His band teacher in high school once approached Satchmo to say what a fan he was, and was grimly rebuffed for being a "white boy". Perhaps he caught him after some racial slur, which must have been a daily fact of life for him.

Oh that is a sad LA story. Weird really that Germans at the end of the war got on so well with him (mind you mil's family definitely weren't nazis!)Meant to say your glasses story made me laugh too. I am currently going through the oh shit I'm changing from shortsight to longsight and will need varifocals very very soon phase. Along with my bad back, and constant exhaustion another depressing sign that I have hit middle age!

Launchcast sounds good (I think) though like Bonnie-Ann it's somewhat opaque to someone who has yet to be corrupted into getting an mp3 player and thinks radio stations involve electromagnetic waves in the air.

I don't own an MP3 player, Rob, and despite the fact elder daughter does, am still completely bamboozled by them. Today is the last day for Launchcast Canada, as Yahoo helpfully dismantles it, the scum. I will miss it so much. I think it's going to take me some time to get used to Last.fm which is quite different.

Who Wants to Know?

I live in the capital city of Canada....and I'd rather not! I'm like Persephone, doomed to spend 10 months of the year in Hades and two months in my hometown. Except that Persephone got to go home for six months out of the year.